“The best partnerships,” David Hunt says, “are the ones where everyone does what they do best when they work together.”
At Delaware Greenways, where Hunt is managing director, the five-member staff does little on its own. With an annual budget of about $350,000, its work is all about building partnerships, often between community groups and government agencies, as it carries out its mission to protect community resources and promote healthy lifestyles.
Here is a look at some key Greenways’ projects.
Walking and bicycle trails
The organization got its start in 1989, when it used its opposition to a proposed shopping mall at the Rock Manor Golf Course north of Wilmington as a springboard to promote the Northern Delaware Greenway and to monitor the development of that band of trails around the city’s northern rim from the Delaware River to the Brandywine. The organization expanded its reach, advocating for a system of trails throughout the state. There are now more than 500 miles of pedestrian and bicycle trails statewide, with the state maintaining and operating 312 miles of trails, and federal, county and municipal governments managing another 150 miles.
Greenways is one of several organizations collaborating with the state Department of Transportation and Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control on the First State Trails and Pathways Initiative, begun in 2012 by Gov. Jack Markell with a goal of expanding the trail system into an interconnected statewide network.
Markell’s plan includes several trails long advocated by Greenways, including completion of the New Castle Industrial Tract trail that would link New Castle with the Wilmington Riverfront via a bicycle/pedestrian bridge over the Christina River. In many other sections of New Castle County, trail development is in a “fill in the gaps” mode, says Jeff Greene, Greenways’ transportation planner.
Some existing trails need additional links to be connected to each other, while others need spurs to make them accessible from neighborhoods, he explains. The completed 2.1-mile portion of the New Castle Industrial Trail, for example, extends north to near the intersection of U.S. 13 and Interstate 295, but residents of the neighborhoods north of Route 273 that are adjacent to the trail have no way to access it.
In Rehoboth Beach, Greene says, the city is enacting a plan Greenways developed to move bicycle traffic off heavily traveled Rehoboth Avenue and Bayard Avenue and onto less congested parallel streets. In Lewes, another collaboration with the city government is aimed at making major roadways more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. In areas near Route 1, Greene says, Greenways is working with DelDOT on a connectivity plan that would give bicyclists well-defined routes through residential subdivisions, keeping them away from the busy highway.
Delaware’s Bayshore Byway
Just as it developed the Brandywine Valley National Scenic Byway, Greenways has been working for the last four years on the Delaware’s Bayshore Byway, which runs along Route 9 from New Castle to the St. Jones Reserve south of Dover. Once again working with the state Department of Transportation and Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control, Greenways has developed a “corridor management plan” that aims to protect and preserve the fragile natural areas along the coast while enhancing and encouraging opportunities for low-impact recreation.
“They’re helping to make the connection between scenic venues and the natural history of the region,” says Karen Bennett, DNREC’s coordinator for the Delaware Bayshore Initiative.
A key component of the project was the creation of 10 “discovery zones,” which brought local governments and community groups into the process. “We have to respect the differences along the 50-odd miles of byway,” Greene says. “New Castle is not like Delaware City, which is not like Leipsic, which is not like Little Creek.”
“It has been an easy alliance,” says Glenn Gauvry, mayor of Little Creek and founder-president of the Ecological Research and Development Group, an international organization dedicated to the conservation of the world’s four horseshoe crab species, one of which makes its home in the Delaware Bay. Greenways doesn’t force ideas on anyone, he says, “and they have the leadership to distill ideas that are floating around into something people can get behind and support.”
The byway planning process, Gauvry says, has built an awareness of tourism potential in Little Creek, prompted the state to begin dredging the Little River and build a boat ramp there, and inspired a local businessman to purchase and renovate a delicatessen that had been shut down for a couple of years.
“It’s being done thoughtfully enough, with input from all communities,” he says. “It looks like a win-win.”
Linda Ratchford, president of the New Castle City Council, says the discovery zone process prompted DNREC to pay for a trail connecting the Army and Gambacorta dikes along the Delaware River, “so now we have a historic dike trail.” And, she adds, “we’re now working a lot with Delaware City to encourage visitation between our cities, and we expect to work more with Port Penn and Odessa.”
Bennett, who interacts regularly with the Greenways staff, says “they take what people know and they wrap it all up in a way that we can promote it.”
Historic Penn Farm
Greenways is now entering the third year of its five-year lease (plus two five-year renewal options) with the Trustees of the New Castle Common to revitalize the 112-acre historic Penn Farm, on Route 273 west of Old New Castle.
The effort, intended to develop a contemporary interpretation of William Penn’s 18th-century vision of farming as a cornerstone of community sustainability, is another example of partnerships at work.
“What’s more central to a healthy, vibrant sustainable community than a sustainable food source and a place for community gathering,” Hunt says.
Agriculture students from William Penn High School are farming a four-acre plot, growing vegetables purchased by area residents who buy shares in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Some of the crops are also served at the school, prepared in the Penn Bistro by students in the culinary arts program.
Becca Manning, the farm manager, says the Food Bank of Delaware will join the partnership this year as a way of providing fresh produce to the Delawareans who benefit from its services.
To get the rest of the long-neglected farm in better condition, Greenways has contracted with Middletown farmer Paul Lester to grow feed corn on 70 acres. In a few years, when soil quality improves, Manning expects that acreage to start producing food for consumption by humans rather than animals.
Meanwhile, students from the University of Delaware’s Center for Historic Architecture and Design are preparing recommendations for renovating the 19th-century farmhouse, which Manning hopes will be converted into a combination office/meeting area and residence for an on-site farm manager, a necessity if small livestock are to be kept on site.
Further improvements to the barn are also planned. The long-range goal, Manning says, is to host meetings, lectures and community events there. The milk house next to the barn will be transformed into restrooms for use by Penn Farm visitors.
The farm stand on Route 273 will also get some attention. While it will continue as a produce stand, Manning says it could also serve as “the gateway to the farm,” with information and displays of farm activities, and perhaps as a mini visitor center introducing motorists to the attractions of historic New Castle.
Healthy Communities
As Greenways developed trails and byways, and even as it entered into its Penn Farm venture, little emphasis was given to their underlying benefit, creating and sustaining healthy communities. That changed three years ago, when the organization began its healthy communities program, with Andrea Trabelsi in charge.
“If you went back 15 years, people didn’t realize a direct relationship between the environment and health,” Trabelsi says. That perception has changed, and Trabelsi is working to reinforce the new understanding.
“If we can foster healthier people, we can save money and boost the economy,” she says.
One of Trabelsi’s first projects was coordinating a wellness study of the city of New Castle. In addition to surveying residents about their eating and fitness habits, it also examined a range of accessibility issues, including the need for more crosswalks, better bicycle paths and improved access to markets that sell fresh produce. One result of the study was passage of an ordinance that banned smoking in the city’s parks and playgrounds.
Last year, Trabelsi led the work on Delaware’s first Health Impact Assessment, a systematic look at the potential health implications of plans to redevelop the old Fort DuPont site near Delaware City.
See You Outside
Greenways President Peter Walsh laments that many Delawareans walk and ride on the trails that Greenways helped create but know little of the organization behind it.
And Hunt, the group’s managing director, likes to point out that Delawareans spend plenty of time outdoors but don’t realize how important the outdoors is to their lives.
So Greenways developed a community outreach initiative, See You Outside, to build awareness not only of its own work but also of the hundreds of outdoor attractions available throughout the state.
On Thursday, March 20, Greenways will kick off its 2014 See You Outside Challenge with a program at the Delaware Museum of Natural History.
Hunt can quickly rattle off dozens of outdoor activities and events that Delawareans take for granted: swimming in the ocean, hiking, bicycling, visiting a park, going to an outdoor concert, watching sporting events, or attending the St. Anthony’s Italian Festival, the Brandywine Festival of the Arts, a Day in Old New Castle, and many others.
The idea behind the challenge is to get out and enjoy these activities and let everyone else know that you’ve done so. To participate in the challenge, sign up at the See You Outside website, check out the activities, send in photos of yourself at the events and have a chance at winning a prize.
The kickoff event starts at 6 p.m. Tickets are $15. Door prizes include four-day passes to one of Delaware’s premier outdoor events, the Firefly Music Festival. The museum is at 4840 Kennett Pike, Greenville.